“You forgot to say ‘Uno’!” Lang Giang cheerfully exclaims before covering her mouth in laughter. It’s the twelfth time she’s caught me this trip and blocked me from winning. By this point in our trek, day four of six, Giang feels more like a friend than my tour guide through Sapa.

Once the sun slips beneath the shimmering waves slathering the sky with soft pinks, reds and oranges, the green lamps of the squid boats strung across the horizon blink on and resemble a series of ellipses as if the ocean is trying to articulate the unsayable.

As the planet-wide dumpster fire that was 2018 comes to a close, we’d like to take a moment to look back at the year in Hẻm Gems through our first-ever Golden Plastic Stool Awards. These will honor some of our favorite local eateries from the past 12 months across four categories: Best Vietnamese Food, Best Non-Vietnamese Food, Best Ambiance and Best Cafe/Bar. We’ll also take a moment to honor our favorite Hẻm Gems that were shuttered this year.

Firmly established as the international school of choice in Ho Chi Minh City, the British International School is a selective, independent and co-educational day school that provides a diverse international education measured by British standards.

FMP’s Saigon International Mother & Baby Association (SIMBA) hopes you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year—and is delighted to announce that our SIMBA gatherings will be resumed this month!

All 437 city-run public schools will be closed through Friday because of dangerous air quality that has overtaken the city.

Earlier today, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority issued the order citing concerns for students' health. High levels of pollution have been observed across the city for weeks and are now at their worst levels yet. “The situation will be bad until February 3 to 4, so I decided to close schools,” said Bangkok Governor Aswin Kwanmuang.

Micro-pollutants rose well above the safe level of 50 micrograms per cubic meter, with one area reaching as high as 113 micrograms. Air Visual, an independent online air quality index last week noted Bangkok's air reached an “unhealthy” level of 171, up from 156 earlier in the month.

The smog has been attributed to traffic fumes, construction and crop burning in the absence of rainfall. The government has taken drastic efforts to improve the conditions including seeding clouds with rain, spraying overpasses with water to collect micron pollutants and even advising people to refrain from lighting incense. Kwanmuang said that closing the schools will also reduce the number of cars on the road which could improve the situation.

As of Wednesday afternoon according to IQ Air, the air quality in Bangkok was an "unhealthy" 167. Saigon and Hanoi, by comparison, were a "moderate" 68 and 92, respectively. Delhi, India was the worst in the world with a "very unhealthy" score of 257 followed by Lahore, Pakistan at 202. Of the monitored cities, Amsterdam boasted the cleanest skies with a score of 4.